Bing has launched a removal request form for those who wish to have embarrassing or damaging links vanished from search results.

The Microsoft search engine's feature comes after the European Court of Justice ruled in favour of the "right to be forgotten" in May, which forced Google to implement a similar request form for those who wish to have results removed on queries for their own name. According to ZDNet, Google may have received as many as 70,000 requests since launch.

Users can access Bing's new removal request form through its webmaster pages. It works much like Google's own form, with the submitter asked for details of the subject and the reasons they feel the link should be removed.

According to the text accompanying the form, the "complete and relevant information" provided by the submitter "will help us consider the balance between your individual privacy interest and the public interest in protecting free expression and the free availability of information, consistent with European law."

It does not, the text adds, guarantee that a result will be removed.

In mid-June, Microsoft explained why it hadn't yet responded to the "right to be forgotten" ruling, weeks after Google had introduced its own removal request form. On its help pages, it explained: "Given the many questions that have been raised about how the recent ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union should be implemented, developing an appropriate system is taking us some time."